All of Europe’s existing and planned coal power plants

Where is your closest coal power plant, and how dirty is it? Where are new plants being built and planned?

Mouse over the dot to get more information. Click on the plant name to fix the info boxes.

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The Dirty 30

Coal power plants emit a lot of CO2, which is driving climate breakdown. The 30 dirtiest coal plants emit more than 50% CO2 emissions from all of the EU’s coal plants. Of the ten largest emitters, seven are German lignite plants.

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The Toxic 30

In 2016, air pollution from coal power plants in Europe caused an estimated 16,150 premature deaths. The 30 most toxic plants caused around half of all health impacts from coal.

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The plants on a pathway to closure

Some plants have retired or announced they will do so since January 2016. Sometimes, plants don’t have closure dates but are located in countries, regions or cities that have announced to phase out coal. Those announcements have to be implemented so that every coal plant is given a closure date.

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The plants that need to retire by 2030

These plants don’t have retirement dates yet. Europe Beyond Coal groups are working tirelessly to secure their closure by 2030 at the latest.

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The new coal threat

Despite dire economics and the threat to health and climate, there are still new coal power projects planned. Here is every project planned or under construction.

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Coal is a health problem

Air pollution is the most pressing environmental risk factor affecting our health, and coal is a major contributor to it. In 2016, air pollution from coal power plants in Europe (excl. Turkey) caused an estimated 16,150 premature deaths, a lot more preventable health problems, and huge costs to health systems and business through lost working days. Going beyond coal means saving lives and livelihoods.

Explore the health impacts caused by the coal plants running in your country and how much pollution your nearest power plant produces.

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The coal companies making us sick

These are the 10 most polluting coal companies in Europe (in 2016). The biggest polluter is RWE, followed by EPH, PGE, ČEZ, Uniper, Endesa, Enea, Steag, ZE PAK and BEH (Bulgarian Energy Holding).

Click on the companies to see the modelled health impacts caused by them and where they operate their plants.

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Coal is a climate problem

Coal plants in the EU are pumping far too much carbon dioxide into the air, heating our atmosphere. To contribute to keeping average global temperature rise to safe levels for humanity, Europe needs to phase out coal by 2030.

Which countries and plants are big emitters, and how do they compare to others?

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What is coal’s climate responsibility?

In 2017, 15% of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU came just from burning coal.To bring emissions down rapidly, coal is a crucial place to start.

Explore the map to see how addicted your country is to coal.

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Which countries are moving beyond coal?

There are ten coal-free countries now in Europe and another thirteen have pledged to become coal-free by 2030 or earlier. This is encouraging, but we need more ambition to address public health and climate breakdown.

What is your government planning to do to ensure a fair, ambitious, and managed phaseout of coal?

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Which cities and regions are moving beyond coal?

Sometimes regions and cities don’t want to wait for their federal government to act - they start doing
what they can.

Find out which subnational and municipal entities have committed to phasing out coal by 2030 or
earlier.

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Which companies are moving beyond coal?

Companies and financial institutions are increasingly seeing the writing on the wall, and are breaking
their business links to coal.

While there is no company yet with the perfect coal policy, there are leaders and laggards in specific policy areas. Click on the companies to find out more.

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Power plants

Health impact

CO2 emissions

Phaseout plans

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Sources

Data sources and methodology

Plant parameters:

Every data point at unit level has been individually researched and sourced. Types of sources include official plant lists of government bodies, permits, company websites, company reports, news articles, and tenders. In a few cases utilities or authorities were called directly or on-site visits were undertaken.

Emissions data (EU only):

CO2 emissions:

Greenhouse gas emissions (by sector):

National emissions reported to the UNFCCC and to the EU Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Mechanism, data provided by European Environmental Agency; coal emissions from power sector are highlighted as a subset of the energy sector, subset is sourced from EU Emissions Trading System data.

Pollutants:

Western Balkans: Data for Western Balkan plants (except Serbia) was gathered manually from different sources. For more information contact us.

Atmospheric Modelling:

Pollutant concentrations are modelled with the European Commission approved Open Source EMEP/MSC-W chemical transport model. We rely on input data provided by EMEP/MSC-W, ECMWF and the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.

Power generation:

Download European Coal Plant Database

This is the raw data on which these tools have been built. It is the most comprehensive, up-to-date set of data on the entire European coal power plant fleet, covering all EU-28, Western Balkans, and Turkey. All information comes from a combination of official sources and national campaign groups and is provided under an open source “share alike” license. The datatool is updated on a continual basis.

Disclaimer

Europe Beyond Coal does its best to deliver a high quality of the Database and to verify that the data contained therein have been selected on the basis of sound judgement. It is based on all relevant data known of by the collaborators of Europe Beyond Coal, but may not be exhaustive, and there may exist further or updated information that they were not aware of. Europe Beyond Coal makes no warranties, and shall not be liable for any damage that may result from errors or omissions in the Database.